Three lessons for Civic Hall Toronto from the 2018 Personal Democracy Forum
Civic Hall Toronto’s Shea Sinnott on what she learned at PDF2018 and how we can apply those lessons to civic innovation in Canada’s largest city.
Last week, I attended my first Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) in New York City. It was an incredible experience.
A month out from the launch of Civic Hall Toronto, I was keen to connect with the PDF community and especially its lead organizers, Micah Sifry and Andrew Raseij. Micah and Andrew are the co-founders of Civic Hall — the Civic Hall — which started four years ago to create a home base for civic tech collaboration in New York.
Now in its 15th year, PDF 2018 gathered an eclectic and accomplished group of technologists, organizers, journalists, public servants, and educators from communities and organizations who work in the civic tech sector. This year’s theme was How We Make Good — both how we make good in the world, and how we make good on our purported values and promises.
As a movement, civic tech is big and bold and broad. It struggles to define itself and is going through an intense period of introspection, asking significant questions, including: what do we stand for? what are our shared goals? And how do we grow at a time when our work is more pressing and urgent than ever? These questions echoed from the podiums, reverberated in hallway conversations, and over post-conference beers.
If I were to sum up the atmosphere at PDF, it was one of reflection; as a newbie to civic tech who’s setting out on launching a new program, it was timely and impactful for me to be there.
The following are three key lessons I took away that I’ll carry forward in my work with Civic Hall Toronto.
Lesson #1: Don’t forget about the “civic” in civic tech
Really, this is two lessons in one.
On the one hand, it’s a reminder that we can’t forget what we’re working towards. It bears repeating that the uncritical belief in “technology as liberation” and the impact of the “digital saviour complex” is harmful. As I heard loud and clear, civic tech is not just about making things more efficient, it’s about making things more human. And that might mean that what the challenge calls for is a policy change and not a technological intervention.
“Let’s recruit more people from the ‘civic’ end of the civic tech spectrum.
On the other hand, it speaks to the division between “tech” and “not tech” in the wider movement. We need technologists — developers, designers, and product managers — and we also need organizers, educators, and policy wonks. So in terms of actions: let’s recruit more people from the “civic” end of the civic tech spectrum.
With this learning in mind, I left the conference feeling more confident about the importance of projects like Civic Hall Toronto, with it’s mission to convene people across sectors and foster more collaboration. And it serves as an important reminder for my role: for those of us in convening roles, if we notice that there are people missing, let’s find out why and devote resources to making our work and spaces more accessible.
Lesson #2: Find and recruit more messengers
When I explain civic tech to people unfamiliar with the concept, I’m usually met with a brief period of puzzlement followed quickly by enthusiasm once they understand. However hard it might be to define precisely, at its simplest, the idea of using technology for the common good resonates with a lot of people. And what’s more, the civic tech community has some great success stories to show its impact — from helping Californians access healthy food to keeping residents in Fredericton aware of potential flood risks.
Yet despite its appeal and proven success, civic tech hasn’t quite made it to mainstream parlance. We need more messengers, more people to help tell our stories. In practice, this looks like casting a wider net (see lesson #1) and recruiting more people from outside our immediate circles to spread the good news of civic tech. This includes journalists, academics, politicians, and people in the public and private sector at all levels.
“Civic tech hasn’t quite made it to mainstream parlance.”
Civic Hall Toronto aims to scale the impact of civic tech in Toronto. To do this, we’ll definitely need to talk to lots of people and motivate them to talk to others. We’ll also need to design programming that’s appealing to people working from a range of perspectives.
If you’re interested in talking more, get in touch: shea@codefor.ca.
Lesson #3: Celebrate victories of people building healthy cultures & organizations
On the last day of the conference, I facilitated a session called Upgrading Government Infrastructure: Reflecting on Challenges and Opportunities with several experts — leaders from the U.S. Digital Service, Code for America, Nava and Coding it Forward.
The group surfaced an important lesson and a call to action that resonated with me: in the same way that we laud victories of building great tech, we must also lift up success stories of people building healthy cultures and organizations.
“Civic tech straddles the worlds of government and tech, and this comes with a great deal of responsibility.”
As someone in our session noted, civic tech straddles the worlds of government and tech, and this comes with a great deal of responsibility. Civic tech is not immune to bureaucracy and toxic working culture, nor are our gatherings or organizations necessarily shining examples of equity and inclusion. So how do we take the best of what these worlds have to offer?
We can start by holding ourselves accountable, prioritize the building of healthy and sustainable cultures, and devote resources to this project. There are some organizations that are working really hard to get this right. I’m proud of Code for Canada, but I’m curious about other examples.
Have ideas? Send them my way: shea@codefor.ca, or reach out on Twitter at @sheasinnott.
Thank you to PDF and its participants for welcoming me this year and for surfacing these learnings. I’ll try my best to heed these lessons in building a Civic Hall Toronto that’s inclusive, collaborative, and contributes to the growth of civic tech in our city.
